Big Wagons

Melvin Joseph Maas spent ten months of World War I overseas with the U. S. Marine Corps Air Service. Now 42, a colonel in the reserves, Colonel Maas applied recently for active duty. The Marines turned him down cold: he was too valuable in his present capacity as ranking Republican member of the House Naval Affairs Committee.

During his seven terms in the House, the Minnesota Congressman has advocated a two-ocean navy, has plumped loud & long for U. S. defense measures, from fortifying Guam to building a larger air force. Year ago he horrified the Navy's high command by proposing that they build some 80,000-ton battleships--two and a half times bigger than their mightiest dreadnoughts.

At that time there wasn't a Navy Yard in the U. S. big enough to handle a 70,000-ton battleship--let alone an 80,000-tonner. And Naval authorities doubted the wisdom of concentrating so much fighting power in a single hull. Such a giant ship would lack speed, maneuverability, would offer a much bigger target to air attack, would be unable to get through the Panama Canal. And its loss would be a staggering blow to any fleet. Nevertheless, the U. S. Navy has always believed that in a showdown between speed and gun power, gun power would be the winner.

Last week Congressman Maas felt good and looked it. After the Senate had passed a $3,446,384,000 Navy appropriation bill for 1942, he told why: five of the 17 battleships to be built for the U. S.'s two-ocean Navy will be 65,000-tonners (total displacement including armament and armor). They were contracted for last September, will cost about $130,000,000 apiece.

It was apparent that World War II's naval lessons had not changed the Navy's mind: more gun power, even if it means less speed. These big brothers will be lucky to hit 28 knots (the new 45,000-ton battleships will speed 33 knots or better). Whether they will be armed with the Navy's biggest guns C16 in.), or will carry 18-inchers, was a deep naval secret last week. But plain as the nose on the Fuehrer's face was the fact that the five new warships would be far & away the biggest ever built. By the time these monsters are finished (five years), the new, enlarged locks of the Panama Canal will let them pass from ocean to ocean.

More immediate were some other cold facts of last week's naval construction report. Warships were being delivered to the Navy from two months to almost a year ahead of schedule. Last month four destroyers and a submarine were completed. Thirteen months ahead of time and still gaining were the Iowa and the New Jersey--first of the 45,000-ton battleships to be laid down. Three more battleships were coming along four months ahead of schedule. Well on their way to completion were an aircraft carrier, six light cruisers, seven submarines, eight destroyers. The 35,000-ton dreadnoughts North Carolina and Washington--the first new capital ships in 18 years--would be ready to join the Navy in July.

Most of this speed-up had been accomplished by cutting red tape in the Navy Department, by putting Navy yards on a six-day, three-shifts-a-day week. Strikes in defense industries had interfered a little, but not much. By March 1 the keels of 97 warships and auxiliary vessels had been laid, materials for some 200 others were being assembled. Last week contracts were awarded for 239 small auxiliaries, mine and patrol craft--minesweepers, submarine chasers, steel tugs.

Cheering as this news was, it did not obscure the fact that it would be at least four years before the bulk of this great fleet would be afloat. But the Navy was doing its best. Said Rear Admiral Samuel M. Robinson, Chief of the Bureau of Ships: "I think we have accomplished, frankly, a miracle in this building program up to date."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.